by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
By Mumtaz Alam
PATNA — Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, home to around one-third of the nation’s 17 croroe Muslim population, have very negligible presence of the minority civil servants on the posts of District Magistrate (DM) or Superintendent of Police (SP).
In Bihar, out of 76 posts of DM and SP, only four are held by the officers from the Muslim minority community, if the information available on the government websites of 38 districts of the state are accurate and updated. Each district has one DM and one SP. There are only two DMs and two SPs belonging to the Muslim minority in Bihar, which has over 1.75 crore Muslim population, that is 16.87% of the state’s total population as per the Census 2011.
The DM of Gopalganj district is Arshad Aziz, IAS, and Sheikhpura district has lady IAS officer Inayat Khan as DM. Jamui and Kaimur districts have Inamul Haque Mengnoo and Md. Dilnawaz Ahmed as SP respectively. Besides, the Purnia Subdivision has IAS Safina AN as Divisional Commissioner.
The situation, however, is poorer in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Compared to Bihar, UP has double the number of districts. However, it has half the number of Muslim civil servants as DM or SP in comparison to Bihar.
UP has 75 districts and over 3.84 crore Muslims or 19.26% of the state population. If the information available on the government websites of 75 districts are accurate and updated, then the country’s most populous state has just one DM and one SP belonging to the Muslim community. While Jalaun district has Dr. Mannan Akhtar as DM, Lalitpur district has Mirza Manzar Beg as SP. However, Azamgarh district has two officers from the community – one is Additional SP (traffic) and another is DSP.
Why This Situation?
Talking to this reporter, former civil servant Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood says the negligible presence of Muslim DM or SP is because of low presence of Muslims among the ranks of IAS and IPS officers.
“Bihar’s figure (4 Muslims among 76 DMs/SPs) stands at around 5% while UP’s is even poorer – less than 1%. The overall all-India percentage of Muslims among IAS and IPS was restricted at 2.5% till 2016. But the results of civil services exams in the next three years (2017, 2018, 2019) took the percentage to around 5% thanks to the efforts made between 2009-2016 (by community-run civil services coaching centres).
The present low representation of Muslim officers as DM or SP is because their percentage among IAS and IPS was just around 2.5% till 2016. Though the percentage increased since then, the current lot of DM or SP are not from those who became IAS or IPS during the last three years,” he said adding that the current situation is not bad in Bihar.
Dr Mahmood, a former IRS (Indian Revenue Service), says the situation in UP is indeed bad. “The representation of Muslims as DM or SP is very bad in UP. It is true that the percentage of Muslim IAS/IPS is low but not even that percentage is visible on these posts,” he said.
When asked if the percentage of successful Muslim candidates in civil services exams has gone down in UP in recent years, Dr Mahmood said: “That percentage has gone up in the last three years across the country, including UP. But the percentage which was even before this increase is not visible in the posts of DM or SP as per your figures. This is a matter of investigation.”
Patna-based political observer Arshad Ajmal also says that the low percentage of Muslim DM or SP could be because of low percentage of the community among IAS and IPS officers.
Ajmal says: “The issue requires some research to reach to a conclusion. One needs to know how many Muslim IAS/IPS officers are present. It seems that the percentage is itself low. Though some candidates qualified from the state public service commission are also promoted to the post of DM or SP, we need to know about the exact numbers. It will be better for me to comment then.”
However, he adds that the current low presence of Muslim DM or SP is not new; it was even during the regime of Lalu Prasad.
“I know it for sure that during the Lalu regime, the representation of Muslims as Vice Chancellor of universities was very good. But I don’t remember that the representation of the community as DM or SP was good. However, at present, there is no Muslim VC in Bihar,” says Ajmal.
Dr Mahmood hints that the present low representation of Muslims as DM or SP could also be partly because of the perception about the minority community.
“If they (the governments) want to appoint minority officers as DM or SP, they can do it even with low percentage. If they don’t want to do it then even good percentage will not matter. During the Akhilesh Yadav regime, UP’s Chief Secretary and DGP both were Muslims,” says Dr Mahmood who runs Zakat Foundation which provides logistic support to civil services aspirants from the minority communities. In recent years, dozens of candidates supported by the Foundation have cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams.
Success of Muslim Candidates in UPSC Exams in Recent Years
In June 2017, the results of UPSC 2016 were declared. Fifty out of the 1,099 successful candidates were Muslims. This was said to be the highest figure of the community in the country’s premier exams since Independence.
Next year in 2018, some 51 Muslim candidates figured in the list of 935 successful candidates. In 2019, some 30 Muslims found place in the list of 759 successful candidates. It may be noted that not all those who clear UPSC qualify for IAS or IPS.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Mohit Dubey,
Lucknow : On her first public outing after making the political debut as Congress General Secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday may have succeeded in drawing enough eye balls in the roadshow here but the road ahead may be arduous and bumpy.
After seeing the response of the moribund party workers during the 17-km-long event, political observers say it would take much more than a mere show on streets to revive the Congress fortunes in 44 Lok Sabha seats of eastern Uttar Pradesh which Priyanka Gandhi will oversee.
While a team of party veterans and young leaders is working overtime to brief Priyanka Gandhi on what lies ahead, she has the task cut out that is daunting, keeping in mind the organisational structure which is in shambles and the beaten morale of the grassroot workers.
The party has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh for more than three decades. As the Modi juggernaut rolled in 2014, its woes only worsened.
A weak organisation seems to be her biggest challenge. And so while the district units of Congress remain on paper, their existence and efficiency beyond that stands in serious doubt. Barring the big names in the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) that jostled to find a place next to the Gandhis on the flower-decked bus during the roadshow, the party has a huge paucity of good faces at district level.
“There are no ‘karyakartas’ (workers)… only netas (leaders) at the state level,” rues a party activist at the Mall Avenue office of the Congress in Lucknow.
Leaders like former UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the one-day-Chief Minister Jagdambika Pal have migrated to greener or rather saffron pastures — the former is the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister while Pal is a Lok Sabha member of the BJP.
Forget, other parts of the state, the party is having chinks in the armour even in pocket boroughs like Amethi and Rae Bareli, where old loyalists like legislators Rakesh Prakash Singh and MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh have bid adieu to the party, jolting its prospects even in party strongholds, hitherto considered invincible.
Eastern UP, a task assigned to Priyanka Gandhi by her brother and Congress President Rahul Gandhi, is the toughest region to win over, even the most overzealous party men admit.
There are 44 seats in all if the eastern UP (Poorvanchal) and Avadh region in which Lucknow and Amethi fall under are taken together. And it is from here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Varanasi) and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (Gorakhpur) come from.
The party is not cadre based and had once the support, largely from a cocktail of communities and castes, which have now slipped out of its hands, barring Muslims and upper castes cut up with the BJP. Putting back the caste matrix which worked in its favour for decades in an uphill task for the 47-year-old Priyanka Gandhi.
The SP-BSP alliance and the 10 per cent jobs and educational quota for the upper caste poor decided by the Modi government have put a spanner in the Congress works. While Priyanka Gandhi may carry an aura around her, the party is still facing a dearth of “winnable candidates” in almost all parliamentary constituencies. If it has to win back its core Dalit, Pasi and Muslim vote, it will have to convince them about its winning chances.
“Floating voters and minorities vote tactically and would throw in their lot with Congress if it puts up winnable faces but the truth is there aren’t many,” says Asif Qureshi, a party sympathiser from Chowk in old Lucknow.
The party had put up 105 candidates in the 2017 Assembly elections when it tied up with the Samajwadi Party and won just 7 seats. It contested all the Lok Sabha seats in 2014 but won just two.
The BJP onslaught on her husband Robert Vadra — his clouded land deals and continued questioning by central agencies — could put the Gandhi scion in an uncomfortable position as and when the issue crops up from the electorate.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews, Politics
Yashwant Sinha
By Anand Singh and Prashant Sood,
New Delhi : Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha says opposition unity against the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections is a “work in progress” but feels that the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party should have included Congress in the alliance in Uttar Pradesh that would have “finished the game”.
He also feels even if the concept of one common candidate against the Bharatiya Janata Party has not emerged so far “closer to elections” it may materialise. Even if there is no grand alliance at the national level, there will be state-specific alliances to corner the BJP, says a confident Sinha.
“Yes, the BSP and SP should have accommodated the Congress. That would have finished the game,” he told IANS in an interview about the alliance in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha.
Sinha, who resigned from the BJP last year and has floated the Rashtra Manch, a non-party platform, said his advice to opposition parties was that they should come together and form strong alliances and have a common minimum programme at the national level.
He said there was no need to go into the “Modi versus who” question being raised by the BJP before the elections and named Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Sharad Pawar, H.D. Deve Gowda and Rahul Gandhi as among leaders with qualities to be Prime Minister.
Sinha, 81, expressed hope that if a “mahagatbandhan” (grand alliance) was not created at the national level, there will be effective state-level alliances to take on the BJP.
He said the idea of putting up a common opposition candidate against the BJP has not materialised.
“Perhaps it is not looking like materialising so far, but I am sure closer to elections something may happen,” he said, adding added that efforts were being made in that direction.
Asked about the opposition parties not coming together to form a grand alliance in several states, Sinha said: “it is not easy for disparate elements to come together and these parties are individual separate parties because they are different.
“So it is not easy for them to come together. Some attempts are being made but necessity is the mother of the invention,” he said, adding that in states such as Jharkhand, Karanataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, opposition parties have come together.
“So there are many states where they have come together. There will be issues because they will have to agree not only on the number of seats but specifically which seat but I am hopeful even if this so-called Mahagatbandhan at the national level is not created there will be effective state level alliances to take on the BJP.”
The former Minister said there were some settled principles on the basis of which seat distribution can decided if everyone is liberal and fair about it.
Answering a query on the index of opposition unity, the former Finance and External Affairs Minister said it was work in progress. “Opposition unity is work in progress.”
On a common CMP of opposition, he said efforts are being made in the direction.
He said opposition parties have understood the importance of social media and Modi will not have an advantage in his campaign.
Answering a query on Priyanka Gandhi entering active politics, he said it will have an impact on the voters in Uttar Pradesh as well as nationally and it will help the Congress.
Asked about the opposition candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming elections, he said it is a very idle question that the BJP is persuading people to ask because it suits them.
“The counter to the BJP is who was the Chief Minister candidate of BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand when state elections were held there. And who have been the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate earlier.
“Who have been the BJP prime ministerial candidates earlier. The first time the BJP said that Mr Vajpayee will be the prime ministerial candidate was in 1995 before 1996 elections when Advaniji announced it. Who was the prime ministerial candidate in 1977 when the Janata Party scored such a massive victory?” he asked.
He said there was no declared prime ministerial candidate when Congress stitched an alliance with other parties to form the UPA government in 2004.
“So, therefore, when you look at our political history you will find the parties have anointed somebody only when it suited. Otherwise, they have gone without a so-called commander-in- chief, without a projected leader. More recently the BJP also has been doing it.”
He said it suits the BJP and they were asking everyone to ask this question and were even making fun as BJP chief Amit Shah has done by asking who will be the prime minister (of opposition) on Monday and who will be on Tuesday.
He said the candidate has eventually emerged as was the case in 1996.
Sinha said when Narendra Modi was projected as the prime ministerial candidate, he was chief minister of Gujarat.
“Now we have many chief ministers in opposition ranks. We have many former chief ministers. We have many chief ministers who also have been central ministers. We have central ministers who have occupied important positions. Therefore, anyone can fill the bill.”
Asked if can be Mamata Banerjee or Mayawati, he added more names.
“Mamata, Mayawati, Sharad Pawar, (H. D.) Deve Gowda, Rahul Gandhi,” he said, adding that though Gandhi does not have administrative experience his party was doing well now.
Asked if he had endorsed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier, Sinha said he had not endorsed her.
“I barely said that she has the qualities to be a prime minister. One has to be be very careful or else media twist it. Who does not have the qualities, several people have qualities. That is why I am telling you what was Modi before, he was just chief minister of a state.”
Sinha said he had talked about Mamata Banerjee because a question was posed to him. “No one asked about others.”
To a further question about Mayawati, he said: “I have named all these people who can fill the bill.”
Asked about his assessment of how Rahul Gandhi has come up, he said he has come up very well.
“The way he was made fun of, he has proved them wrong. I think Modi and Amit Shah who wanted a Congress-Mukt Bharat and were talking about it, that has completely vanished from the discussion now.”
Sinha said he will not contest elections.
“As of now, no,” he said, adding that he had decided not to take part in electoral politics before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The former Finance Minister said he did not have problem with the BJP of Vajpayee and Advani but he had issues with the style of working of Modi and party President Amit Shah.
Sinha said ruled out his going back to the BJP but said “it will be a better party without them (Modi and Shah)”.
He said the most important issue against the government was that it has destroyed all the institutions in this country. “The federal structure has been badly hit under this government.”
He named agrarian distress, unemployment, issues concerning Dalits and crimes against women as other issues that the opposition would highlight.
He said considering the country’s diverse political landscape, a federal party concept “is an interesting concept which should be explored”.
He said such a front can have alliances with national parties such as Congress and CPI-M.
Asked if he will play a role in the formation of such a party, Sinha said he can play a role up to a limit. “Your effort depends on your accommodation space that everyone else is prepared to give you.”
Sinha said he will try definitely to bring opposition parties together.
“I will try definitely to make it as reasonable as possible for everyone. I am prepared to give whatever assistance whatever anybody wants. And it will depend on them now.”
(Anand Singh can be reached at anand.s@ians.in and Prashant Sood at prashant.s@ians.in)
(This story is an intellectual property of IANS)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Lucknow : BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday marked her 63rd birthday with a fulsome attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of betraying the people on promises made in 2014 and the BJP of dividing people in the name of caste and religion and said the people would vote them out in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Three days after her party tied up with the Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha battle, she addressed a press conference again and said the alliance was giving the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and others “sleepless nights”.
“Modi is doing a number of rallies at many places. He is again making a number of false promises to the people like his earlier promises. And these promises will also be shelved,” she said.
Accusing the government of betraying the people, she said: “The government failed to fulfil its promise to farmers, students and others. They promised to bring back black money, they promised to put Rs 15 lakh in every bank account.”
Demanding that Muslims be also given 10 per cent reservation on the basis of their economic condition, she said, “The Modi government brought the 10 per cent reservation to the economically weaker sections of the upper caste in view of the elections. But our party supports the bill.
“But we want that the Muslims should also be given 10 per cent reservation on the same basis,” she said.
Targeting the BJP and Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said: “They in the name of religion are not only doing wrong politics but now they have started doing politics on the caste of gods and creating communal divide for political gains.”
She accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of doing politics over Friday prayers by Muslims.
She alleged that the government was using religion based identities to alienate masses from one another.
Talking about the alliance of BSP and SP in the state, she said: “This year my birthday has come at a time when the Lok Sabha elections are very near. And keeping the polls in mind, my party has formed the alliance with the SP which has given sleepless nights to the BJP and also others.”
She accused the Centre of using the institutions like CBI to harass its political opponents.
“The best example is of Akhilesh Yadav, and such an act by the government is condemnable and unfortunate. It is a political conspiracy.”
On January 12, Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav announced that the they will contest the coming Lok Sabha polls together in Uttar Pradesh sharing 38 seats each of the 80 in the state, while not putting up candidates in Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress has otherwise been kept out of the alliance.
The Bahujan Samaj Party supremo also said that it was Uttar Pradesh that decides which party would form the government at the Centre. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and its allies had won 73 seats.
Appealing to the party workers to vote for the alliance and forget earlier differences, she said: “To make this alliance a success, I appeal to all the workers of the SP and BSP to forget past differences and work for the victory of both parties’ candidates. This would be the biggest gift on my birthday.”
She also warned the party workers that the BJP was capable of spreading confusion and rumours and urged them to remain alert.
Slamming both the Centre and the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, she said the BJP had lost support of the people of the state as they did not fulfil promises made in 2014.
Batting for a complete farm loan waiver of farmers, she said it would have been beneficial to the farmers of the country if the Modi government had implemented the Swmainathan Commission’s recommendations regarding the agriculture sector.
“The ground reality of the agrarian dimension is that small farmers still continue to opt for private money lenders and loans from private banks as there is no structured government policy of waiving their debt.
“The government should give 100 per cent farm loan waiver. Else farmer suicides will continue. A strong farm loan waiver policy should be made,” she said.
Mocking at the Congress’s farm loan waivers in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, she said the Congress government announced to waive farm loans till March 31, 2018 after it came to power on December 17, 2018.
The BSP leader blamed the BJP and Congress governments for corruption since Independence.
“Due to corruption, the farmers, Dalits and tribals did not get opportunity to progress. And thus we had to form the BSP after getting disillusioned,” she added.
At the event, Mayawati released the 14th edition of her “Blue Book”, which details her struggles as the BSP leader.
She also wished Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple, an MP from Kannauj, on her birthday which also falls on Tuesday.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, Politics
By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi,
The strategic partnership of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in UP is very crucial in the run to 2019 general election in India. The Indian National Congress should have been taken on board but its arrogance, as seen in recent past during Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan elections, might be among the reasons to keep it out. However, with or without Congress, the outcome in UP for the alliance is not going to be much deferent in the post election.
Following 2014 election it was proven unmistakably that in UP, precisely, votes division among SP, BSP and (at a few places) Congress caused BJP’s sweep. The colourful Modi baloon that was on air in 2014 is no more entertaining for many NaMo fans. The SP-BSP duo will be in better position to check the mad-horse ride of BJP in UP this time.
The political chemistry in whole of India is not same and it cannot be the same. Kerala, Telengana and Assam are arithmetically somehow similar for Muslims in India. They should try to consolidate more power in these states. It will be in Congress’s interest, nationally, to club with AIUML and AIUDF in Karela and Assam as pre-election partners.
Muslim leaderships with small parties in UP and Bihar could not create their own support bases and failed to take wise decisions at right times. Without a visible foothold on ground no political party can claim shares in the real political game. Thus protecting constitutional interests and future dignity of Muslims in India should be the soul objective of voters in UP and Bihar.
Muslims should favour SP-BSP in UP and RJD-Congress in Bihar without slightest doubt in minds. The alliance parties in both the states should, however, ensure adequate representations of the community within their respective parties while distributing tickets. UP and Bihar will pull the king down in 2019 unlike past, when these states had been the king makers.
West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka may throw unexpected results as was seen following Tripura assembly election last year. There are hopes for BJP to make some gains. Muslim, Dalit and ST voters can play smart with EVMs. These states are going to be the swing states in 2019 elections and these may also heavily influence the overall outcome by the end.
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chattisgar, Assam, Haryana and Punjab will offer better chances for the Congress. These states will decide either Rahul Gandhi will be an option for the post of Prime Minister following 2019 counting day or not.
At this point of time, it is useless to speak about any Muslim-led political party beyond Assam, Karela and Hyderabad unless a Waisi, Ajmal or Abu Asim is visibly present somewhere. Those Muslims who are harbouring political aspirations in their hearts should nourish themselves politically mature and grow their persons as capable players within Indian complex polity before jumping in the ring unwisely.
Undoubtedly, there is a scarcity of genuine Muslim leadership in India, those available are very very few or are very limited in appeal. To begin with in politics, especially for a new party or even for an individual, it is always better to contest Panchayat or Corporation elections, then Assembly and then Lok Sabha. A reverse of this order is a bad idea and those who advise to try it, are simply amateur and emotional lots.
Defeating NDA should be a clear terget this time by all Indians. Unity of India and communal harmony among its citizens are some of the laud calls to respond by all en masse. Indian Muslims must not get confused by excited slogans from unseasoned politicians. Be it driven by extra-nationalist zeel of some or victimhood mind set of others, application of minds on individual level will the wise way for voters. Muslims have been, of course, always in the receiving end but have been, on the other hand, surviving with some dignity and basic safety since post partition India.
This on going five years – post 2014, clearly proved that if they do not make mature decisions in politics now, they may even be like Muslims in Israel, Borma or China. If a Muslim leader is not ready to understand or read this clear writings on wall, then he or she is either naive, vested interest or senseless tool and such people should be rejected outright by all.
——
(The author MB Qasmi is editor of Eastern Crescent and director of Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre, Mumbai.)
